In just two days, 50,000 jobs are cut by U.S. employers, with Michigan, Rhode Island,
and South Carolina leading in the unfortunate race of states with the highest unemployment rate.
Early yesterday, Caterpillar (20,000 jobs cut), Sprint Nextel (8,000 jobs cut), and Home
Depot (7,000 jobs cut) made their announcements of job eliminations.
Later in the day, Texas Instruments announced plans to cut 3,400 jobs, while General
Motors announced job cuts totaling 2,000 jobs. Still later, Pfizer announced,
as part of its acquisition of Wyeth, that it would cut the combined workforce by some 19,500 employees.
Today brings news that Corning, Inc., plans to slash 3,500 jobs -- about 13 percent of
its workforce. And as earnings reports are continued to be released this week, expect
even more announcements of cuts by other hard-hit companies struggling to survive in this
weakened global economy.
Also today, the U.S. Labor Department released the latest unemployment data for all 50 states.
The largest month-to-month decreases in the level of employment were reported in
California (78,200 jobs lost), Michigan (59,000 jobs lost), New York (54,000 jobs lost),
Illinois (36,000 jobs lost), Indiana (35,300 jobs lost), and North Carolina (34,900 jobs lost).
Here are the top 10 states with the highest and lowest unemployment rates, as of December 2008.
The national average for December is 7.2 percent.
